(337) 
Abicefs in the Kidnyes, and the Method of Cure>. 
be , what feveral of them do mention, as weiJ as the 
Moderns. 
The fir ft light which I can pretend to difcover of 
the Operation, as praftifed in our Cafe, is among the 
Arabians^ tho' even by them with an intention to dit 
courage and deter all. Men from the Attemt ; for Se- 
rapion, who is placed by Wolfgangus Juflusy betwixt the 
Tenth and Eleventh Century, tho' by Rtn. Mareai^ 
three hundred years earlier,glves his Opinion of it thus ; 
TtaSi. 4. c, x%. Qutdam antiquorum praceperunt Japim 
dim renum estrah't cum ferro intidente retro fuper latm 
duorum iliorum in loco renum. Ego auUm video quod h(ec, 
audacia efi difficilis vehementer & admmjirath iflim 
curationis eft maxime periculofa ^ fufpe^a de morte. 
Who thefe Ancients were that advifed, I coafefs to^ 
be beyond my Conjecture • it being, as I have faid, 
tQ be found innone of their Writings, which have re- 
mained to our times ; unlefs we may be allowed to fay, 
that he alfo had mifunderftood Hippocrates^, as fome 
have manifeftly done fince. Betwixt iz and 1300] 
Avicen h^^ much the fame Opinion, both of the Pra- 
ftice and the Praditioners ; Sunt qui . lahorant. extra- 
here ipjum per incijtonem tlii ^ per dorjum. Sed efl 
magnui timer in eo operatio ejus qui rationem non hahet, 
fag. 361. td. Fen. ijdx». The difference of their. 
Sentiments being only, that one thought it the Under- 
taking of a Mad-man, theother of a Confident Fellow 
but from ^vic^^'s Words, there is fome colour to be- 
lieve that .it was pradifed in his Days, tho' undoubted- 
ly, if it were, from his talking fo ilightty of it, it 
was only by Perfons of a mean Charadler, fuch perhaps 
as pur Mountebanks, who having no regard or concern 
for the lives of Men, and little Reputation of their own 
tojgofe,^ venture boldly a and fometimes fuccfi&fully^i 
upoa i 
i 
